Footnotes

Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris.
Galerie Beyeler, Basel.
Goldman's art Gallery, Haifa, Israel.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature
Geiser & Baer, Picasso Peintre-graveur, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé, Volume V, 1959-1965, Berne, 1989 (B.1352)

Picasso was 78 years old when he took up the technique of linocut. He had permanently moved to the South of France, dividing his time between La Californie in Cannes and the newly bought Château de Vauvenargues in Aix-en-Provence. He had met in Vallauris a local younger printer named Hidalgo Arnéra with whom he started doing poster linocuts and would continue to experiment in this new exciting technique. Picasso made approximately 150 linocuts, though is a small part of his output as a printmaker, he produced some of his most accomplished compositions by this method in a brief burst of activity from 1958-1963.

Before Picasso abandoned the linocut process in 1963 he produced a group of prints which has come to be known as épreuves rincées (rinsed proofs). They were made by printing the linoblock in creamy white ink, then brushing the printed impression with India ink. Once this had dried, he would then rinse the print with water. Where the ink sat on top of the printed surface it was washed away, while in the places where the paper was exposed the ink penetrated and was absorbed by the sheet. Each impression is unique as the process of applying the brushed ink and rinsing creates different effects in each the image.

Baer records the existence of only three proofs signed by the artist. All are in private collections.